Sony just dropped another little number in the mid-range segment last month. The Xperia T2 Ultra Dual is Sony’s way of making amends for the disaster that was the Xperia Z Ultra. The T2 Ultra Dual comes with a more grounded price tag and that same gorgeous 6-inch Triluminos display. Of course, other things have been cut down along the way. The new Ultra will compete with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Mega series and the HTC Desire 816, which have also fallen in this price segment over the past couple of months. It doesn’t see like the T2 has much of a competition.
Design and Build
The Sony Xperia T2 Ultra Dual bears the spitting image of the Z Ultra. It’s lighter though due to the lack of glass and ever to slightly thicker (7.7mm compared to 6.5mm) compared to its elder sibling. While the edges are rounded off, there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s massive and is quite a task getting it to fit in denims. It’s not the most ergonomic of designs but it is quite aesthetically appealing. So far, the LG G Flex has been the only 6-inch phone that we felt was relatively comfortable for everyday use.
The T2 retains the flaps despite ditching its IP58 tag
The T2 sheds it’s IP58 certification but keeps the flaps for a neater look. You get the dedicated shutter button along with the ergonomically placed power button. Installing a SIM is quite a pain as the tray doesn’t pop out. Instead, you have to pry it out with your nails.
The back gets scratched very easily
The back gets a high-gloss treatment which will easily attracts fingerprints and grime the moment you take it out of the wrapping. It also gets scratched very easily even if you’re super careful. Around the back, we have the 13MP shooter and an LED flash below it.
Button placement is actually very good
The Xperia T2 is built well and doesn’t really come across as cheap. I’m not a big fan of the glossy back but some might like it. It has good ergonomics as far as button placement goes but isn’t very easy to use with one hand.
Features
The T2 features a 720p IPS LCD display. You also get the Triluminos technology and Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2, which are basically marketing terms that add little to the overall experience. There’s also glove mode which boosts the sensitivity of the display. Despite having a low pixel count of just 245ppi, images and text look way better than any of Samsung’s Mega series. The display offers crisp and vivid colours which are great for watching videos or surfing the web.
The familiar Xperia skin
The standard Xperia skin works smoothly on Android 4.3 and 1GB RAM. There’s one neat gesture addition which now lets you bring down the notification panel by double tapping the home button. Through this method, the notifications are displayed from a bottom to top manner, making it easier to dismiss them.
Decent performance across the board
The Xperia T2 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400, a popular chipset used by most OEMs these days. It consists of quad-core CPU running at 1.4GHz. Performance is good and similar to the Samsung Galaxy Grand 2.
Media
You get 8GB of internal memory which can be expended to 32GB. Out of this, about 4.68GB is available for use. The Walkman music player is very similar to the ones we’ve seen in the past and so is the video player. Audio quality is very good through a good pair of IEMs and so is the loudspeaker. While it’s not the best for music or videos, it’s more than adequate for alerts.
The T2 has good audio playback
The video player won’t read WMV, FLV and some AVI files, but everything else, including MKV files, works just fine.
Connectivity
The T2 Ultra Dual supports quad-band 3G on the first SIM and quad-band 2G on both. The two SIM also features dual stand-by as well. Other features include dual-band Wi-Fi ‘n’, Bluetooth v4.0, MHL, USB OTG, GLONASS and NFC. Call quality is good however the earpiece needs to be held at a sweet spot in order to hear the caller clearly. Veer slightly off and the audio level drops drastically. Sony also adds support for screen mirroring and PS3 DualShock 3 controller.
Very good set of connectivity options
Camera
The 13MP snapper does a good job at stills and video. Indoor pictures are decent as well as long as you don’t zoom too much into the picture. Low-light shots are just about average though as quite a bit of noise creeps in the image. The interface is simple and easy to use and as always, you can download more apps to enhance the camera’s ability.
The camera interface is neat and the functionality can be expanded
Pretty good landscape shots
Low light is average at best
Video recording maxes out at 1080p for the rear shooter while we get 720p for the front.
Battery Life
Battery life is simply excellent. Sony has retained the 3000mAh battery from the Z Ultra which will easily last you for two days.
Very good battery life
Verdict and price in India
You can find the Sony Xperia T2 Ultra for as low as Rs 22,500, which is quite a bit lesser compared to its launch price of Rs 25,990. There’s no glaring issue that we’ve faced with the T2 that can be called a deal-breaker. Perhaps a faster chipset would have been a welcomed addition. It’s a good all-rounder with a beautiful display and excellent battery life. If you’re looking for a 6-inch smartphone and don’t want to spend too much; then we highly recommend the Sony Xperia T2 Ultra. It’s a very good mid-range offering from Sony with all the right connectivity and multimedia features in place. In case you don’t fancy such a big display, but find the price right, then look no further than the Motorola Moto X.
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